Road Trip 2021

Took a 1:00 tour at Sun Studio where music legends like Elvis, Johnny Cash, and BB King have recorded. The tour was informative and it was fun to listen to different selections of music that was recorded there. We also got to recreate the iconic photo of Elvis with the actual microphone that he used! Very cool!

The Crystal shrine grotto was really neat! We didn’t really know what to expect, but the whole grotto is studded with crystals and geodes and tells the story of Christ’s life in a very unique way. The cemetery grounds are beautiful and very well kept too!

We were really lucky to nab a table at Jacques Imo’s! The complimentary cornbread was delicious, Brian had a Purple Haze beer and I had a watermelon mojito. Dinner was Boudin balls for our appetizer (I think Boudin sausage is our new obsession) seafood etouffe with asparagus and sweet yams for our main, and coconut bread pudding (that our waiter JJ described as “slap ya mama” good 😂) for dessert - and none of it disappointed. I was so full I felt like I could pop!

Afterwards we went back to the hotel and got ready for bed. It was a long day of driving and we were tired from the trip and all the eating we did at Jacques Imo’s.

After breakfast, we drove into the French quarter and started our first proper wander. We ended up strolling through the open air market and popped into some shops down the road. I had to try my first praline (a pure sugar and butter candy in the shape of a cookie with pecans inside) so we grabbed a few at the souther candy makers shop and gave them a try. There are extremely sweet, but of course I love anything with sugar! The chocolate ones were my favorite ❤️

The St. Louis Cathedral is beautiful! And the history is fascinating as well. We met a man named Phil that worked at the church answering questions and giving general information about the church. We ended up talking to him for about 45 minutes! He was a wealth of knowledge about everything to do with the cathedral as well as the local history.

Although we couldn’t eat at Café Amelie, we sat in the beautiful garden right outside it. The gardenia trees were in full bloom, and the fountain was gently gurgling in the background. It felt like stepping out of the city for a few moments and getting a refreshing drink of water.

Our pre-dinner, dinner lol. A local recommended this place and said that they had the absolute best fried chicken ever! Well, it was just ok. We got a sampler plate with rabbit and sausage jambalaya, a (tiny) piece of chicken, shrimp creole, seafood gumbo, red beans and rice. I wouldn’t say anything was particularly amazing, but nothing was terrible either.

Last, but not least, dessert! A couple spaces down from Bevi seafood is Angelo Brocato - so of course we had to get some gelato and a couple baked goods! I had Baci gelato and Brian had the Praline. Both were very good! We also got something called a Greek top (pastry filled with almond paste, but it wasn’t as almond-y as we’d hoped and also kind of bland) but the chocolate dipped almond crescent was 5 stars! Chewy, very almond-y with the perfect amount of crunch. Yum!

Bayou swamp walk! This was so beautiful! The water was so high because of all the recent rain that it was all the way up to the boardwalk. We heard tons of bullfrogs, tree frogs and birds calling to each other. We also saw a blue heron, huge snapping turtle and alligator (at a distance). We also met a fellow traveler named Bill who used to work for the national park service. He gave us tons of ideas for things to do as well as a place to go eat for lunch. He was an absolute wealth of information!

Later on, we ended up back at the French market for another look around. And this time I got a crepe from the stand I had been eyeing each time we had walked through. Simple and tasty, there’s nothing like a fresh hot crepe smothered in Nutella 🤤 We kept walking around and took the next photo in front of a quintessential New Orleans building.

La Boulangerie is rated 4.8 stars on Google so of course we had to check it out. We got 2 almond croissants and a cinnamon bun. Needless to say, the bakery lived up to its reputation!

Our final stop before leaving New Orleans was the St. Louis Cemetery. There are some really really old graves there, and a lot of interesting headstones. It was cool just walking around and learning about a little more of the history of the city.

We arrived in Pensacola late in the afternoon, checked into our Airbnb, and then asked our host if he had any good suggestions for a fish dinner. He suggested Nick’s Boathouse, so that’s where we went! We split fried pickles for an appetizer and a blackened grouper plate that was very tasty, but also very expensive. The food was good, but not great, so we were a little bummed after leaving the southern food mecca of NOLA.

We tried to see the sunset after dinner, but google maps was trying to take us to a beach that we found out was actually on the airbase. After a quick encounter with the security guard, we turned around and headed back to the Airbnb. We were able to see a little bit of the sunset while crossing the bridge back to our room.

After the beach, we stopped back at the Airbnb to freshen up and decide where we wanted to eat. We landed on the Oar House and headed over. There was a half hour wait, but the outdoor bar had a few stools available and we partook of the great happy hour specials. 2 large margaritas each later, we were pleasantly buzzed when our table became available. We we sat on the outside deck and ordered fried alligator bites for our appetizer and then split another blackened grouper plate that came with hush puppies, grits, rice, cole slaw, and broccoli. It also came with a side of citrus buerre blanc (that was delish) and we ordered a side of crawfish etouffe. Everything was great...except for the grouper. It was so bad that we asked for a new piece. Our server was super nice and said she had no probably getting us a new piece but it would take about 20-30 minutes. We said forget it. But then she came back saying that the manager wanted to make it right and that he could have the new piece right out. We said ok sure, we’d love a new piece! We got the new piece and it was just as bad as the first. The manager came over and apologized profusely and said that they had been having problems with this batch of fish for some reason. He said he would comp the grouper and told us each to pick out a dessert. So we each got the brownie sundae, and then felt like we were going to explode after all that food lol!